Search results for "Protease"
showing 10 items of 463 documents
Functional significance of membrane associated proteolysis in the toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry3Aa toxin against Colorado potato beetle.
2012
Abstract Bacillus thuringiensis Cry toxins are widely used as biocontrol agents in bioinsecticides and transgenic plants. In the three domain-Cry toxins, domain II has been identified as an important determinant of their highly specific activity against insects. In this work, we assessed the role in membrane associated proteolysis and toxicity in Colorado potato beetle (CPB) of a previously reported ADAM recognition motif present in Cry3Aa toxin domain II. We used site-directed mutagenesis to modify the Bacillus thuringiensis cry3A gene in amino acid residues 344, 346, 347, 351 and 353 of the ADAM recognition motif in Cry3Aa toxin. Cry3Aa toxin mutants displayed decreased toxicity when comp…
Morpholino knockdown of the ubiquitously expressed transmembrane serine protease TMPRSS4a in zebrafish embryos exhibits severe defects in organogenes…
2011
AbstractOver the past years the members of the type II transmembrane serine protease (TTSP) family have emerged as new players in mammalian biology. TMPRSS4 (transmembraneprotease/serine) is overexpressed in several human cancer tissues, promoting invasion, migration, and metastasis. However, the physiological function has not yet been elucidated. Here, we present morpholino knockdown studies targeting TMPRSS4a, a homolog of human TMPRSS4 in zebrafish embryos. By RT-PCR, we could demonstrate an expression of this protease already 5 h post-fertilization, suggesting important functions in the early stages of embryonic development. Indeed,in vivogene silencing caused severe defects in tissue d…
Kinetics of thrombomodulin release and endothelial cell injury by neutrophil-derived proteases and oxygen radicals
2002
Thrombomodulin is a transmembranous glycoprotein of endothelial cells. In vitro it is a marker of endothelial cell injury. In vivo the levels of serum thrombomodulin are regarded as a parameter of activity in vasculitides. The latter are pathophysiologically determined by neutrophil-derived inflammation and endothelial cell injury caused by secretion of proteases and hydrogen peroxide. It was the objective of this study to determine whether thrombomodulin is only a late marker of advanced endothelial cell injury or whether it indicates also earlier stages of cell alterations. Over 24 hr endothelial cell cultures were incubated with hydrogen peroxide or the neutrophil proteases proteinase-3,…
Prohibitin, an essential protein for Colorado potato beetle larval viability, is relevant to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry3Aa toxicity
2013
Bacillus thuringienesis (Bt) Cry toxins constitute the most extensively used environmentally safe biopesticide and their mode of action relies on the interaction of the toxins with membrane proteins in the midgut of susceptible insects that mediate toxicity and insect specificity. Therefore, identification of Bt Cry toxin interacting proteins in the midgut of target insects and understanding their role in toxicity is of great interest to exploit their insecticidal action. Using ligand blot, we demonstrated that Bt Cry3Aa toxin bound to a 30kDa protein in Colorado potato beetle (CPB) larval midgut membrane, identified by sequence homology as prohibitin-1 protein. Prohibitins comprise a highl…
Characterization of EprA, a major extracellular protein of Oenococcus oeni with protease activity
2008
International audience; Extracellular proteins from Oenococcus oeni. a wine-making bacterium, were isolated during growth on media differing by their nitrogen content. Analysis by two-dimensional electrophoresis revealed a low number of protein signals. Among the main spots, one signal corresponded to a single protein, which contained a lysine repeat domain characteristic of cell-wall hydrolases. We demonstrated that this major protein, named EprA, was able to hydrolyse several proteins. The heterologous production of this protein in Escherichia coli confirmed the protease activity of EprA. With a MW of 21.3 kDa and a pl of 5.3, EprA presents optimal activity at pH 7.0 and 45 degrees C. Thi…
Calpain 1 and 2 Are Required for RNA Replication of Echovirus 1▿
2007
ABSTRACT Calpains are calcium-dependent cysteine proteases that degrade cytoskeletal and cytoplasmic proteins. We have studied the role of calpains in the life cycle of human echovirus 1 (EV1). The calpain inhibitors, including calpeptin, calpain inhibitor 1, and calpain inhibitor 2 as well as calpain 1 and calpain 2 short interfering RNAs, completely blocked EV1 infection in the host cells. The effect of the inhibitors was not specific for EV1, because they also inhibited infection by other picornaviruses, namely, human parechovirus 1 and coxsackievirus B3. The importance of the calpains in EV1 infection also was supported by the fact that EV1 increased calpain activity 3 h postinfection. …
Meprins process matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9)/gelatinase B and enhance the activation kinetics by MMP-3
2012
Abstract Meprin α and β, members of the astacin family of zinc metalloproteinases, are unique plasma membrane and secreted proteases known to cleave a wide range of biological substrates involved in inflammation, cancer and fibrosis. In this study, we identified proMMP-9 as a novel substrate and show that aminoterminal meprin-mediated clipping improves the activation kinetics of proMMP-9 by MMP-3, an efficient activator of proMMP-9. Interestingly, the NH2-terminus LVLFPGDL, generated by incubation with meprin α, is identical to the form produced in conditioned media from human neutrophils and monocytes. Hence, this meprin-mediated processing and enhancement of MMP-9 activation kinetics may …
Neutrophil Extracellular Traps as a Drug Target to Counteract Chronic and Acute Inflammation
2019
Neutrophil extracellular traps (NET), extruded decondensated chromatin entangled with neutrophil proteases, have been first identified in neutrophils stimulated with bacteria or phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) via activation of NADPH oxidase and the generation of reactive oxygen species. Although the first findings demonstrated the beneficial role of NET formation by trapping the bacteria and limiting their dissemination, numerous studies in the recent decade revealed the multifunctional aspects of NET formation which manifests itself not only in the context of anti-microbial effect but also as a pathological trigger. Uncontrolled and exaggerated NET formation or inability to digest and rem…
Processing without proteolytic cleavage is required for recognition of insulin by T cells.
1990
Beef insulin as well as a chymotryptic A-chain fragment [BI-A1-14(SSO3-)3] need uptake by antigen-presenting cells (APC) for efficient presentation in combination with major histocompatibility complex class II molecules to insulin-specific T cells. This could be shown by the inability of aldehyde-fixed APC to present these antigens to T cells. Furthermore, presentation of the insulin fragment as well as presentation of ovalbumin (OVA) was inhibited by treatment of APC with chloroquine, cerulenin or tunicamycin. This was not the case for a processing-independent OVA peptide. Treatment of APC during antigen pulsing with various protease inhibitors, active on all classes of proteases, did not …
Unnatural amino acids increase activity and specificity of synthetic substrates for human and malarial cathepsin C
2014
Mammalian cathepsin C is primarily responsible for the removal of N-terminal dipeptides and activation of several serine proteases in inflammatory or immune cells, while its malarial parasite ortholog dipeptidyl aminopeptidase 1 plays a crucial role in catabolizing the hemoglobin of its host erythrocyte. In this report, we describe the systematic substrate specificity analysis of three cathepsin C orthologs from Homo sapiens (human), Bos taurus (bovine) and Plasmodium falciparum (malaria parasite). Here, we present a new approach with a tailored fluorogenic substrate library designed and synthesized to probe the S1 and S2 pocket preferences of these enzymes with both natural and a broad ran…